Do Culturally Sensitive Services for Chinese In-Patients Make a Difference?

Hospitals in large cities provide services to an increasingly diverse linguistic and cultural clientele. Some strategies adopted to improve services to non-English speaking populations include the use of bilingual social workers, interpreters and printed translation tools. In order to identify gaps...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social work in health care 2007-04, Vol.44 (3), p.129-143
Main Authors: Ng, Joseph, Popova, Svetlana, Yau, Myra, Sulman, Joanne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Asian Americans
Asian Cultural Groups
Asian people
China - ethnology
Chinese
Chinese languages
Chinese people
Client Satisfaction
Communication Barriers
Cultural differences
Cultural Diversity
Cultural Sensitivity
Culturally sensitive practice
Female
Hospital social work
Hospitals
Humans
Inpatients
Interviews as Topic
language barriers
Language skills
Male
Middle Aged
Ontario
Patient Satisfaction
Patients
Quality of Health Care
Social Work
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Summary:Hospitals in large cities provide services to an increasingly diverse linguistic and cultural clientele. Some strategies adopted to improve services to non-English speaking populations include the use of bilingual social workers, interpreters and printed translation tools. In order to identify gaps in culturally sensitive care in a Canadian teaching hospital, this study surveyed a consecutive sample of 279 Chinese in-patients to determine satisfaction with hospital experience, levels of information about hospital routines and awareness of on-site Chinese cultural services. Results were generally positive. However, satisfaction and information levels were significantly higher among those patients who were aware of culturally appropriate Chinese resources such as social workers, cultural interpreters, and culturally specific reference tools. Of particular interest are the 121 patients (44%) who were less comfortable with English, since awareness of culturally specific resources tended to make a greater difference to this sub-group. These results can potentially help health care providers improve services to patients and families from diverse cultural and linguistic groups.
ISSN:0098-1389
1541-034X
DOI:10.1300/J010v44n03_01